


A Wizard's Hallelujah

by Gorramshiny



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Music, Sad, Song Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 15:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10834374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorramshiny/pseuds/Gorramshiny
Summary: The main cast and others in the New York area gather after a loss.





	A Wizard's Hallelujah

**Author's Note:**

> Major spoilers for Wizard's Dilemma and some for Wizards at War. Takes place shortly after Wizards at War.

Nita rang the doorbell to Tom and Carl's, dressed in a very plain long black dress. The same one she had worn on the day of her mother's funeral. Kit stood next to her, wearing a suit and black tie. Carl opened the door, the skin around his eyes red and raw.

“Thank you for coming,” his voice scratching more than usual. He stepped aside to let them in.

“I'm sorry for your loss,” she murmured, and immediately felt foolish, but there was nothing else she knew to say.

The dining room was half-full of people, and the table half-covered in food of various kinds. Kit's mom had sent him with a large batch of her famous _arroz con_ pollo, and he put it with the rest of the food. Nita set down the flower arrangement and casserole dish of lasagna her dad had sent with her in the middle of the menagerie of tin foil and plastic wrap.

On the counter was a photo of a middle-aged man with thinning salt-and-pepper hair and a long face. Justin had been one of the Advisories living in Philadelphia. He hadn't come back from the Pullulus crisis. His wife didn't know. Tom had to let her believe he had gone missing. There wouldn't be a body to bury.

Nita and Kit hadn't had occasion to meet him, but it didn't much matter. Tom and Carl, she knew, would feel responsible for losing him, and they could use all the support they could get. She found Tom sitting in an armchair, Annie the border collie sitting next to him. He was petting her idly. His eyes were just as red as Carl's had been and the hand not on the dog was gripping the arm of the chair like it might float away if he let go. There was someone next to him, talking quietly, and they fell quiet a moment before Nita and Kit approached.

“Thank you for coming,” he said. His voice wasn't scratchy, but thin, weak.

“Couldn't do much else,” Kit said. He checked himself. “Sorry. Um...”

“It's okay,” Tom said, giving him a wan smile. “I know what you meant.”

Kit looked at his shoes. Tom looked at Nita, and glanced down at her dress, his eyebrows coming together in a flash of concern and his lips tightening. Of course he would remember when she last wore it. “How're you doing?” he said.

Nita shook her head. “It's not about me, Tom,” she said kindly. “I'm...” she paused, again feeling foolish. “I'm...”

“Sorry for your loss,” Tom finished. “I know. You can say it. It actually...helps to hear right now.”

Nita nodded. She glanced over to the person who had been talking to Tom. The advisory introduced herself to Nita and Kit as Helen, an Advisory out of California. She reminded Nita of Kit's mom. “Justin worked...” She winced. “Worked with me in LA before he moved to the east coast.”

“I see.” Nita didn't want to keep saying 'I'm sorry' over and over, so she settled for curtsying. It somehow made sense.

Helen smiled. “Thank you.” She put a hand on Tom's shoulder. “I'm gonna go talk to Carl.”

Tom nodded. Helen left. Nita set her hand over the one he was using to hold the couch. The hand relaxed ever so slightly. She just stood that way for a while, neither of them saying anything while Kit stood there awkwardly until finally taking his leave. Nita stayed a while longer.

“If there's something you need...” she said.

Tom nodded once again. “Thank you. We'll let you know.”

“Me or my dad...”

“I know.” He kept petting Annie.

After a while, Nita found herself back at the food table, taking one of the small appetizers. Most of the dishes there were so Tom and Carl didn't have to bother with cooking for a little while, and they could have an easier time with the grief. It was a Jewish tradition that had apparently come from Carl's family. Darryl—who was also there in a dark suit—had told them about it a few days before the wake; Nita hadn't bothered asking how he knew.

Darryl came up next to her. “Hey.”

“Hey. You good?”

“If it was too much noise or something I'd be out of here, and they wouldn't bug me about it, you know that. But thanks.”

“You're welcome.”

He pointed to a tray of blintzes. “That one's from Irene. She dropped in early until her kid started bawling.”

“You got here first?” she said, looking over at him.

He shrugged. “I got the sense they'd be more comfortable with me around. Wizards that know me tend to be.”

 _Being an abdal will do that,_ Nita thought. Yeah, his presence could be unnerving, but when there was a loss in the heart, the raw goodness that leaked out of him sometimes helped fill it.

Nita glanced back to Tom, and noticed Kit sitting next to him, idly petting Annie. Her heart felt like it squeezed itself. _He lost someone too._ The wizardly leash still hung by his door, and it had been tough to get him out of bed to come here, even though he'd originally been the one to make sure she was going to go.

The sound of someone tuning a guitar caught her attention. Helen was sitting on a couch in the living room, and Tom sat next to her. People started taking up seats around the room, and Daryll, Kit, and Nita stood off to the side.

Helen finished tuning the guitar and nodded at Tom.

“Those of you,” he said, taking a sip of water, “who have been with us a while know Carl and I have a tradition when one of us passes. I know some of you have taken it home with you, and I can't say how grateful I am to hear that. Those that are newer...” He glanced to the three of them standing off to the side, along with the other younger wizards from the New York area. His voice distanced with the memory in his eyes, “I wrote this a few months after becoming an Advisory. Don't ask me to tell you the story, I won't unless you're going to be an Advisory yourself. But—“ his voice cracked, and he looked down. When he looked up, it was to Helen. “Let's do this before I can't anymore. Anyone who knows the words can join in.”

Helen started up a familiar guitar riff and Nita glanced to Kit, smiling a little. He looked confused and intrigued, and Darryl was bemused. After a few measures, Tom started singing Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah”, though the lyrics were definitely different than ones Nita had ever heard. Some of the Advisories, Helen included, sang with him.

 

_I heard a whisper from the trees_

_And from the rocks, land, wind, and seas_

_Our old foe doesn't hear these sweet words, do you?_

_The newest blood in the Life-filled hall_

_Will listen when the Powers call_

_Within their eyes a dream-bright hallelujah_

 

Nita and Kit and Darryl and everyone else joined in on the chorus, though the song was already starting to tug at Nita's heart. She had a feeling she knew where it was going to go. _Fairest and Fallen, Greetings and Defiance_ she thought, and the words brought with them a small thrill of joy.

 

_I tracked your smile to far-off suns_

_A stuck Ordeal just begun_

_The Crossings was a gorgeous new place to you_

_But I watched the fairest power shine_

_It's tempting Speech a poisoned wine_

_A brilliant, crying, fallen hallelujah_

 

She took Kit's hand and sang the next chorus through the growing ache.

 

_You called your words to the highest height_

_You held fast to a Wizard's Life_

_You never thought Time's Heart would have you, did ya?_

_While sun burned down on the distant sands_

_I held your heart between my hands_

_These cracked and bleeding lips called hallelujah_

 

Nita's mother was in her mind now, and she couldn't sing through the tears. She leaned her head on Kit's shoulder and watched. Tom and Carl couldn't sing through their tears either, though Helen and the other Advisories started the next verse.

 

_We walk this path, our heads held proud_

_We serve this quest as we have vowed_

_I hope you'll know we'll fight for you too, do you?_

 

Everyone but the new wizards joined in as Tom dropped his head into his hands. Nita rubbed the tears out of her own eyes and watched him. At this point, she couldn't tell if, when he joined in with them, he was actually singing or mouthing the words. It didn't really matter.

 

_For when I leave this world, my home_

_I'll stand before the Power's own_

_And on my tongue a Cousin's hallelujah_

 

On the last line, Tom smiled fiercely and looked up, meeting Nita's eyes. She glanced to Carl, who was smiling too. Nita forced herself to sing through the last choruses, and heard Kit singing with her, feeling his tears falling into her hair. She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

 

_Hallelujah, Hallelujah._


End file.
